Belial, the razor-clawed screaming blob last seen being sewed onto the side of his former Siamese-twin with a needle and yarn…is back! And it’s so bad, it’s good.
Following the events of Basket Case 2, Belial and his normal-looking, former Siamese-twin, Duane, have gone to live in a house full of freaks and mutants who have been shunned from society. However, after Duane’s mental break-down and attempt to sew Belial back onto his waist, Duane has been kept in solitary confinement for a year. In that span of time, Belial’s girlfriend (a similar blob-like monster) has become pregnant. Duane is released from solitary confinement to witness the birth of his nephews, but Belial won’t talk to him. The house full of freaks goes on a road trip to a doctor capable of delivering the babies. However, shortly after their birth, Belial’s babies are stolen by a group of greedy police officers hoping to turn the freaklings in for a reward. How will Belial rescue his screaming blob-babies? A giant robot body, of course.
Ah, the Basket Case trilogy, giving a whole new meaning to the term “low budget”. Unlike the first movie, this installment is very blatantly tongue-in-cheek. With all the gratuitous sex, violence and bad acting, one would mistake this for a Troma film at first glance. Still, like the previous films in the franchise, this episode of Basket Case does have a moral to get across. While all the freak-shows living with Belial are truly disgusting and monstrous-looking, it’s the regular people (police officers, no less) who are the real monsters; willing to exploit babies just because they’re ugly. Yeah, I know, not exactly deep, philosophical material, but at least it has a message.
The make-up effects are gruesome but not really “realistic”. However, after only a few minutes of watching the film, you start to realize that nothing about this movie is supposed to be realistic. In one of the better kills in the movie, Belial squeezes a police officer’s neck so tightly his eyeballs and teeth pop out of his face. Physically, it makes no sense, but at least it looks great. Heck, at one point, you even see the boom-mike operator’s reflection, clear as day, for an uncomfortable amount of time. This is not horror to take seriously.
The tongue-in-cheek, dark humor is the best thing about the installment, though. The end, where Belial hunts down the police officers in his robot body (apparently built from an erector’s set) and mauls them to death while Duane casually eats a bowl of cornflakes is pure hilarity.
This is a horror comedy, but may be too stupid for some. You definitely have to be able to appreciate Troma-style horror to like this movie. Otherwise…yeah, it’s kinda dumb. I’d give it a C. Nothing to go out of your way to find, but worth it if you like goofy horror comedies.
Grade: C